So Cynthia, Jade, Sue, Danielle and I were having coffee over the weekend while Danielle regaled us with her amazing apology story.  We laughed, we cried, we oohed and aahed.  We reminisced about that awesome dog.  He had been a great dog.  Truly one of a kind.  Danielle had always been an animal lover.  A wide variety of animals have come across her doorway through the years.  Some by invitation, some by stubborn refusal to leave.  Danielle’s mother had found that awesome dog.  Her mom had worked at a Home for Wayward Boys which was located out of town.  This dog was lurking around the facility and the boys were throwing snowballs at him.  He looked thin.  He was a German Sheppard mix.  Danielle got her love of animals from her mother.  Her mother brought him home.  Danielle immediately fell in love.  He was cute.  Albeit dirty.  He was a little quirky; he rode in the car backwards.  Without another thought, that stray dog was brought into their lives and there he would live out his life.  No questions asked.  No fear.  No reservations.  Just openness.  Danielle was still in high school when she got that dog.   Still trusting and open.    

That dog was with Danielle through all her ups and downs in her marriage.  He didn’t make it to meet that baby boy but he lived a wonderfully long life.  After he left this world Danielle was lost.  So she did what many of us do in the face of loss, whatever kind of loss that may be, she replaced him.  She went to the shelter; she found a puppy that looked exactly like that dog.  But a female.  A healthy choice.  She didn’t consciously know she was replacing.   She tried her very best to love the new puppy.  Danielle had her since she was a puppy so she didn’t really have any bad habits.  She didn’t get into trouble.  She was loving.   She was a cute dog.  But she just didn’t have “it” according to Danielle.  It just wasn’t the same.  Well tragically, or maybe not so tragically, this dog didn’t live a long wonderful life.  She ended up having some health issues that required her to be put down.  Sad.  Danielle was sad, but not devastated.   She had a lot going on her own life so she survived this loss. 

It’s been my experience that if you are a dog lover, you’re a dog lover.  You can’t live without a dog.  It just doesn’t feel right.  So Danielle got Alex.  Again from the pound.  This time a totally different dog.  A small dog.  She’d never had a small dog before.  She brought him home.  That dog was a menace.  He was a runner.  There is nothing worse than a dog who is a runner.  He thought it was a game.  Every time Danielle called for him, he may come back.  Or he may not.  It depended on his mood.  Danielle spent much of her time being mad at that dog.  But then again, she was mad a lot anyway.  She had a lot going on in her life.   She was with the creep at that time.   Alex “tragically” got hit by a car.  During one of his “games” when Danielle was calling for him and he was running the other way.  Everyone knew it was bound to happen.  Not a shock.  Danielle survived.  She hadn’t really liked that dog much anyway. 

So after Alex Danielle was ready to wait.  She needed a break.  She was with the wonderful man now.  She had worked on herself and knew better than to jump into anything.  But as I stated, once a dog lover, you can’t live without a dog.  So after a respectful amount of time, that wonderful man and Danielle got a new dog.  A puppy.  A purebred this time.  Not that that matters.  Just a small detail.  Well, this puppy was something else.  He was the easiest puppy to train.  No problems.  Really.  He wasn’t a runner.  He sought Danielle’s approval.   He was at her side 24/7.  He still is.  He’s the apple of Danielle’s eye.  Her constant companion.  She of course loves her kids, but that dog.   He’s special.  He’s the one.  He has “it”. 

So I got to thinking.  Were these stories about dogs, or were these stories about Danielle?  Had Danielle put her internal baggage onto these dogs or were these dogs really “not the one”?  And is there a correlation between choosing our dogs and choosing our “dawgs”.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  Danielle took that awesome dog in without any second thoughts.  She didn’t question where he came from.  She didn’t wonder about any bad habits.  She liked him.  She took him in.   Just like she had Mike.  She was young.  Not jaded yet.  She was a mess when she got that puppy.  She had no business having a puppy.  Haven’t we all had that boyfriend who was perfectly nice, perfectly compatible but somehow still not “the one”?  Is it the boyfriend or you?   Well, Alex, she got that dog on a whim.  She hadn’t thought it through.  He came from a shelter.  He was an adult dog.  He had issues.  She chose to ignore or blind herself to them.  And then was surprised that he was a problem.  And I am referring to the dog, not the creep she was with. Though they are interchangeable.     Was it that dog with issues, that dawg with issues, or Danielle with issues?  Or more likely, a combination of the 3.    Isn’t it interesting that when Danielle was in a happy place, happy with the man in her life and happy with her life in general, she found the “one”.   And he’s not a perfect dog.  He gets in trouble on occasion.  After all he is a dog.  But he’s her dawg.  And she loves him.  Both of them.    

Know yourself, know your limitations, don’t put your stuff on someone else, human or otherwise.  Be open.   And perhaps more importantly; have you hugged your dog/dawg today?